A random silly childhood memory of mine:
There was a trophy shop in the strip mall we went to sometimes, and I liked looking in the window and seeing all the trophies and medals and ribbons and whatever else they had, and wanted to win lots of them.
A while later, I went with my mom and she picked up an order of trophies for something - a sports team or whatever. But when she just paid and was leaving, I said "but what about the proof?" "Hunh?" "Like you gotta prove that you're from the organization that can give out trophies!" Apparently I thought you had to be from "The State" to "deserve" to have trophies you could give out. Clearly you can't just be any random person and have a trophy. What if you cheated and only pretended to win? My mom had to explain to me that anyone can come and buy a trophy and engrave whatever they like on it. It doesn't actually prove anything. And a little bit of childhood wonder disappeared that day.